


December Days

by Helendmeyourears



Series: Check, Please! drabbles [2]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 16:45:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4529502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helendmeyourears/pseuds/Helendmeyourears
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Nursey makes a bad life decision and Dex is (mostly) grateful for the buddy system.</p>
            </blockquote>





	December Days

**Author's Note:**

> Gentle reminder that you can find me (and some of my other Check, Please! fics) on tumblr at raphaelsantiagoisaces that is all

“Remind me again why we’ve got a buddy system just to go to the store?” Dex asked.

Nursey shot him a look, frowning. “Dude. It’s not just any store- it’s the murder stop and shop.”

“Okay. Say something happens, what’re you gonna do? Tell ‘em to chill and hope they listen?”

“Help them get the job done so that I’ll finally be free of you, more like,” Nurse said, but he was grinning, and he playfully nudged his shoulder into Dex’s.

Dex pressed the palm of his hand to Nurse's cheek in answer. Nurse jerked away, cursing, and glared as he rubbed his face with the thick sleeve of his jacket.

Dex's hands were cold as the grave, and they felt it, too. The morning chill of the early spring air, not so cold that the snow stuck to the ground, was still cold enough to sting throats when breathed in, and sting against unprotected limbs, numbing them into stiff, useless things.

He needed gloves. He should've gotten some sooner, but some part of him hoped that Nurse would notice whenever he cupped his hands over his mouth to breathe some warmth into them, and decide to take Dex's hand and let their shared body heat solve both of their problems.

If they were going to hold hands in public, Dex was not going to be the one brave enough to initiate it. So he waited, and hoped, and when he felt a hand slip into the pocket of his jeans his first thought was that Nurse was aiming to find some heat in a similar but less practical way.

It took him a moment to realize that the rummaging hand was seeking not warmth, but the wallet he had tucked in there, and by then the wallet was gone, and Dex was on the ground, the breath forced from his lungs by a well-placed strike from an elbow.

The next thing he knew, both his attacker and Nurse had disappeared, presumably around the street corner they had been approaching.

Dex scrambled to his feet and around the corner just in time to see Nurse fly into the ground with a sickening thump, while the attacker kept going, barely even sparing him a glance over the shoulder. The bastard was laughing.

Dex couldn't find it in himself to be angry at the time, though, not when Nursey didn't get up. In fact, Nurse didn't seem to be moving at all.

The sight made Dex feel infinitely worse than the elbow he'd taken to the chest. He rushed to Nurse's side, fumbling for his phone as he did.

 

When Nursey was done being examined and was finally allowed visitors the first thing Dex did was kiss him, long and hard and frantic, his hands roaming over Nurse's skin, feeling how very warm and alive he was, tempering the memory of Nurse cold and still as a body that had been stuck in his head all day.

The second thing he did was blow up.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He fumed, with half a mind to storm out of the hospital right then.

"I was thinking that it's called the murder stop and shop, not the mugging stop and shop," Nurse ventured.

Dex stared at him for a moment. Was he really going to joke about this?

"Try again," he said, tersely.

"I was thinking that the sex afterwards was gonna be fantastic?"

"Again," Dex repeated, unamused. That was the kind of thing only drunk Nursey would say. Or Nursey with a head wound, apparently.

"I was thinking that I would sock the guy in the face and end it in five seconds flat, instead of tripping over my own damn feet and knocking myself out cold," Nurse grumbled.

Dex's mouth thinned into a line, and Nurse sighed. He sat up, then winced, raising a hand to his forehead.

It was enough to make Dex take a deep breath and try to calm himself down. Nurse was fine, but for a small gash on his forehead and a bruised ego. The attacker had been caught by a helpful bystander. Everything was going to be okay.

"I wasn't thinking, alright Poindexter? Is that what you wanna hear?"

"What I want to hear is that you won't risk your life over $40 again," Dex shot back, but there was no heat in it.

He suddenly felt exhausted, the kind that pressed on your body insistently, like gravity made palpable. He no longer cared what he did or who was there to see it.

He slumped into the hospital bed beside Nurse so that they were lying shoulder to shoulder, the length of their bodies pressed together. It was a tight fit; half of Dex's body was hanging off the edge of the bed, but he didn't care. It had been a long, hectic day of worrying and phone calls and text messages to update friends who were doing the same.

Nurse took Dex's hand in his own, holding it firmly, the way Dex had wanted him to earlier. Dex paused for only a moment before lacing their fingers together. There was a moment of comfortable silence then, filled only by the sounds of their breathing and of the hospital around them- a muted chattering, the rattling of medical tools, and the steady sound of footfalls like erratic heartbeats.

Eventually, Nurse turned to Dex and said, "Y'know, technically it was for $20 and the snacks the other $20 was going to pay for. And, don't lie- I looked pretty cool for a second there didn't I?"

His eager expression didn't falter, not even when Dex laughed.


End file.
